I castle my KNIGHT!

[trada]

*cough*

Curious, does anybody use forts?

My last game I put fort at the border between me and the Greeks and placed a Phalanx in it. I used it as a grouping group before sending my catapults off in armies of half a dozen.
They double the defence and I reckon are quite underrated.
Have you used them in the past?

Have they ever helped you in a war?

And have you ever seen the AI use them?

 

[Tenochtitlan]

I haven't seen the AI use them but I do use them sometimes. They are quite useful in wars as you can stack units and they only die one at a time.

Try using them on a mountain and stack some Mech. Infs or some Riflemen (or even phalanx), and it will be a few hundred years before they can penetrate your defenses. I don't use them much because I only need to in a few types of games I play, like defensive games on Emperor or King, and when there is a tight geographical spot where alot of units cross.

They are underrated, and I do not use them enough because I didn't make a habit of doing so.

The problem with them, however, is when the enemy gains control of the spot. Or if you have only 1 unit up there in the fortress spot, the AI tends to bribe that unit and now your in trouble.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

It is a long time since I have played Civ1, but I clearly remember this one game where I was on the same continent with several other civs including Mongols. As a matter of course, in situations like this I would try to conquer most if not all of the civs occupying my home continet. But this game went very poorly and before long I was fighting for my own survival. Eventually it got to a point that I decided the game is a loss. Then I had an idea. The land connection between my portion of the continent and Mongolia was a narrow land bridge. What if I had kept Mongols away by building a fort there and putting a couple of units there?

I went back to my early saves and replayed the game building that fort. The fort worked beautifully and kept Mongols in their portion of the continent. When I got to the point that I decided to quit the earlier version of the game, I did a save and compared the two. The difference was huge!

 

[GoldBerg]

yep.
i remember a game years ago where i did play more 'expanding in territories' at an early stage of game:
i did build up to 10 or 20 fortresses in a line of mountains that did seperate me from the zulus to prevent them to invade my territory with their masses of units -
maybe one of my most interesting civDOS games ever.

 

[trada]

I think forts aren't really everybodies habit because:

1. They take a settler to build. You can't build forts on overseas canpains unless you take a settler with you. And even on land wars it's extra baggage.

2. It takes years to be built! My guess it takes 6 or so turns. By the time you have built it the battlefield is probably somewhere else.

I reckon they are best when land is tight and a border is to be held. As you guys recall.. they work effectively when they can be placed strategically in a narrow spot.

If there is a mountain somewhere between my cities and I have a settler hanging around I try to build one for future wars.

 

[Zwelgje]

I never ever build forts, I did it a few times in the past but found them to be useless.

It takes long to build but that can be overcome using the settler cheat. However the major drawback is that they're useless for my style of playing the game. I never allow other civs to be on the same continent as me so I don't need to hold other civs back. Whenever I chose to attack another civ the action goes that fast that by the time I've built a fort the action is already far ahead and the fort is of no use.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

I'm not sure trada but I believe on
plains its 4 turns
hills its 6(?) turns
and on mountains 8 turns but it could be 4-8-12 plain-hill-mtn rather than 4-6-8
Will have to test.

 

[Alex Johnson]

It is probably the same as building a railroad (which is twice building a road).

 

[civ2]

I myself never use them simply because:
1. I never play defensive games.
2. I had a phalanx "survivor" that stayed in a city for some twenty Armour(!!!) attacks!

 

[trada]

I myself never use them simply because:
1. I never play defensive games.
2. I had a phalanx "survivor" that stayed in a city for some twenty Armour(!!!) attacks!

Try playing at a higher level. Then you will need defence as much as offence.

 

[civ2]

I always play at max level.

 

[trada]

o_0 And you win? Dude. Nobody can win at the max level. If you mean emperior then you know there are many levels higher then that. Try beating TGG's record of winning level 6.

 

[civ2]

If you let me use the "I-can-see-everything" cheat - I think I can win against any level.
(Yeah, I meant Emperor as the highest NORMAL level. )

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

2. I had a phalanx "survivor" that stayed in a city for some twenty Armour(!!!) attacks!

ah, civilization at it's finest